IKE
Well-known Member
- Location
- Oklahoma....U.S.A.
Two weeks ago I went to visit a divorced and living alone Vietnam vet who has liver cancer and for now is on home hospice care, he's fully aware that his days are numbered......we drank coffee and talked for about three hours or so about Vietnam, guns, women and whatever else that came to mind till the hospice lady showed up to check on him and after a man hug I left.
Anyway, while talking about guns I mentioned that I had been selling off a lot of my guns in the past 3 or 4 years and that I sort of regretted selling off my last rifle chambered in .22 LR.....he gets up, goes to his bedroom and comes back and hands me an older .22 bolt action, single shot rifle and says, "take this home with you, no man should be without a .22 rifle."
He said that his uncle had given him the gun many years ago and that it had been given to his uncle by his uncle's father.....he also told me that he had never fired it.
It's a 27" barrel Winchester Model. 67 that was made from 1934 till 1963, after doing a lot of research I found out that they made a stock design change in late 1936 and mine is a 'pre-stock change' which means it was made somewhere between 1934 and late 1936.....the barrel is stamped for 22 short, long and long rifle.
The old gun has a excellent bore and even the wood and bluing are in really good shape and there's not a speck of rust on it but some of the chrome is worn off the bolt handle.....naturally I had to know if it fired so I took it to the range this week and fired ten rounds through it and it functioned flawlessly, to cock it for firing you close the bolt on a round and then pull back on the knurled knob on the end of the bolt.
I offered to pay for the gun several times but he wouldn't let me and told me to just pass it on to someone else when I grew tired of it.....knowing the past history of the gun and how I came to own it the rifle now has sentimental value to me and I can't see me ever getting rid of it.
Anyway, while talking about guns I mentioned that I had been selling off a lot of my guns in the past 3 or 4 years and that I sort of regretted selling off my last rifle chambered in .22 LR.....he gets up, goes to his bedroom and comes back and hands me an older .22 bolt action, single shot rifle and says, "take this home with you, no man should be without a .22 rifle."
He said that his uncle had given him the gun many years ago and that it had been given to his uncle by his uncle's father.....he also told me that he had never fired it.
It's a 27" barrel Winchester Model. 67 that was made from 1934 till 1963, after doing a lot of research I found out that they made a stock design change in late 1936 and mine is a 'pre-stock change' which means it was made somewhere between 1934 and late 1936.....the barrel is stamped for 22 short, long and long rifle.
The old gun has a excellent bore and even the wood and bluing are in really good shape and there's not a speck of rust on it but some of the chrome is worn off the bolt handle.....naturally I had to know if it fired so I took it to the range this week and fired ten rounds through it and it functioned flawlessly, to cock it for firing you close the bolt on a round and then pull back on the knurled knob on the end of the bolt.
I offered to pay for the gun several times but he wouldn't let me and told me to just pass it on to someone else when I grew tired of it.....knowing the past history of the gun and how I came to own it the rifle now has sentimental value to me and I can't see me ever getting rid of it.
